The Saskatchewan Party (SP or Sask Party) is a conservative political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The party was founded in 1997 by a coalition of former provincial Progressive Conservative and Liberal Party members who sought to unite opposition to the governing New Democratic Party. Since 2007, the Saskatchewan Party has been the province's governing party, and both the party and the province are currently led by Premier Scott Moe.
Since first being elected to a majority government in 2007, the Saskatchewan Party has enjoyed a run of electoral success not seen in the province since the days of Tommy Douglas's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. In 2024, the SP was elected to its fifth consecutive majority government, a feat not achieved since the CCF led five majority governments between 1944 and 1964. This success has led observers to declare the SP the province's new natural governing party.
Brad Wall was the first SP leader to become Premier in 2007. The party took power at a time of soaring natural resource prices, which helped to spur economic and population growth. A downturn in resource prices beginning in 2014 created challenges for the province's economy, and in the years since the provincial debt has reached historic levels. Wall announced his retirement in 2017 and he was succeeded by Moe in 2018. Under Wall's early leadership, the SP was considered to be a centre-right party, albeit one with a neoliberal and Christian conservative basis. In later years (and particularly under Moe's leadership), the party is considered to have taken a turn further to the right. Under both premiers, and especially since the election of a Liberal federal government in 2015, the party has increasingly focused its attention on the federal government and espoused sentiments of western alienation within the Canadian federation.
History
Party foundations (1997–1998) The Saskatchewan Party arose from a distinct political climate in the 1990s. The Progressive Conservatives led two consecutive majority governments from 1982 to 1991 under the leadership of Grant Devine. However, economic challenges, the party's profligate spending (which left the province on the brink of bankruptcy), a close association with Brian Mulroney's unpopular federal PCs, and a major expense fraud scandal that resulted in prison time for several members of the party all severely damaged the PCs. Under the leadership of Bill Boyd, the PCs lost nearly half of their vote share in 1995 compared to 1991, and the party was reduced to five MLAs. The Liberal Party, meanwhile, despite returning to Official Opposition status in 1995 for the first time since 1975, was being weakened by internal disputes. The New Democratic Party (NDP) under Roy Romanow took power in 1991, and rapidly addressed the fiscal crisis, balancing the province's finances by 1995. However, this process involved numerous cuts to services that were seen as disproportionately affecting rural residents, deepening an urban-rural divide in the province that had already been widened by the PC emphasis on rural issues throughout the 1980s.
With neither the PCs nor the Liberals seeing a clear path to defeating the NDP, discussions about a merger began within the caucuses in July 1997. Although unsuccessful at first, four MLAs from each party, all representing rural districts, agreed to walk away from their parties and form a new one. In August 1997, PC MLAs Boyd, Dan D'Autremont, Ben Heppner, and Don Toth joined former Liberal MLAs Bob Bjornerud, June Draude, Rod Gantefoer, and Ken Krawetz in announcing the founding of the Saskatchewan Party. The new party was officially registered on September 17, and with eight sitting MLAs, took over the status of Official Opposition. Krawetz, who had been serving as the leader of the Opposition with the Liberals, maintained that role when he became the interim leader of the new party. Its formation was challenged by Reform Party members who planned to establish a provincial affiliate, accusing the new party of performative populism. Concerned about possible right-wing competition, the November founding convention adopted grassroots provisions on voter recall, fixed election dates, free votes for party MLAs and referendums on abortion and VLT. While the SP embraced some Reform Party policies and thereby won the favour of their political operatives, its formulation has been described as a movement by political elites.
Neither the PCs nor the Liberals disbanded after this merger of former party MLAs. However, while the Liberals ran a full slate of candidates in the 1999 election, with four being elected, the Progressive Conservatives effectively went dormant, running only paper candidates to keep the party registered over the next election cycles. This, along with the broad migration of PC members and staff to the new party, led to accusations by the NDP and the Liberal Party that the new party was merely a rebranding of the scandal-plagued PCs. Romanow often referred to the new party as the "Saskatories".
Elwin Hermanson (1998–2004) In April 1998, former Member of Parliament and Reform Party house leader Elwin Hermanson was elected the party's first leader. Hermanson defeated former Liberal MLA Gantefoer and political newcomer Yogi Huyghebaert for the position. Since Hermanson did not have a seat in the legislature, Krawetz remained as interim house Opposition leader. The new leader stated that while people "know I have the best interests of the agriculture industry and rural Saskatchewan at heart because that's where I still live", the new party was "not anti-urban." Hermanson declined to run in a 1998 Saskatoon by-election, instead waiting for the next general election to run for a seat. Under Hermanson, the party put forward an ambitious fiscal conservative platform, calling for major corporate and income tax cuts. These policies were joined by a number of controversial and social conservative policies, from a commitment to consider privatizing crown corporations to work-for-welfare policies and an end to public affirmative action. Limited attention was paid to federal-provincial relations, while proposing to Romanow and Melenchuck to act as a "united front" to exert pressure on agricultural issues.
Hermanson led the fledgling party into its first election in 1999 on this platform. The party had a strong showing, narrowly edging out the NDP in the popular vote and sweeping rural districts across the province, demonstrating the growing cleavage between urban and rural areas; the party won only a single urban seat. Overall, the SP won 25 seats and reduced the NDP—which won 29—to a minority government.
The party acknowledged the need to broaden its appeal to urban areas, and discussed moderating its social conservative image. It tabled or defeated motions at its annual conventions dealing with taxation of Indigenous residents and publicly funded abortions. Ahead of the 2003 provincial election, the party again campaigned on a platform of tax reductions and decreased government involvement in the economy. However, it remained bogged down by questions about its conservatism and in particular its plans for crown corporations, with Hermanson continuing to state that he would be willing to entertain offers for them. The SP still led polling going into the election, and ultimately increased its seat count to 28. However, the NDP increased its share of the vote and won 30 seats, returning to a majority. The result was seen as a major letdown for the Saskatchewan Party, and Hermanson resigned as leader shortly afterward.
Brad Wall (2004–2018)
In opposition (2004–2007)
Brad Wall, a former ministerial assistant in the Devine government who helped launch the party and was first elected as a MLA for Swift Current in 1999, was acclaimed as the new party leader on March 15, 2004 after no one else entered the race to succeed Hermanson. Wall launched a review of party policies with a view to moderating the party's image. Through the review, the party abandoned many of its social conservative policies, such as "boot camp" correctional sentences and any discussion of abortions. Reform-based populist policies were removed, with the exception of fixed election dates. Wall instead focused on economic issues and improvements to healthcare. Still facing questions about the Progressive Conservative expense fraud scandal, the party also drafted a Code of Ethics in 2006, intending to commit members to a standard of ethical conduct under threat of suspension. When it was revealed in 2006 that the party had received a $10,000 donation from Imperial Tobacco, Wall created a policy banning such donations. In the lead-up to the 2007 election, Wall also sought to put to rest fears about privatization, stating that "Crowns are not going to be privatized and (subsidiaries) are not going to be wound down".
In 2007, the Saskatchewan Party was sued by the Progressive Conservatives over access to the nearly-$3 million PC trust fund. The PCs alleged the fund's trustees—three of whom were active in the Saskatchewan Party—conspired with the Saskatchewan Party to deny them access to their funds as they tried to re-launch the party from its dormancy. The case was not settled until 2014, when PC leader Rick Swenson announced that his party had been given control of the fund.
By 2007, Wall's efforts to broaden the party's appeal appeared poised to pay off. In the 2007 provincial election on November 7, the Saskatchewan Party won 38 seats to form a majority government, making Wall the province's 14th premier.
Majority government (2007–2018) By all accounts, the Saskatchewan Party formed government at an opportune time, inheriting a strong economy buoyed by still-rising commodity prices, including oil, potash, and agricultural products. Wall's government immediately used rising revenues to institute significant tax cuts, particularly income tax cuts, and to service debt reduction—in its first full fiscal year, the government paid down close to $3 billion in debt. The government released a plan for growth, calling for annually balanced budgets and for provincial debt to be halved by 2017. However, the government's next three budgets ran deficits. The government also explored the idea of setting up a new "rainy day fund", something the NDP had done in the 1970s, building an investment fund out of windfall resource prices; the government ultimately opted not to, despite the report it commissioned recommending it do so.
Wall's government also immediately introduced labour reforms with two bills in 2007, with one restricting unionization and the other the right to strike for more than 65,000 workers deemed to be working in "essential services". The latter law faced legal challenges, and in 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the law was unconstitutional. Although Wall suggested a willingness to use the notwithstanding clause to keep the law, the government never did so.
In 2010, Wall and his government rose to national prominence for their opposition to a proposed takeover of Saskatoon-based PotashCorp—the world's largest potash producer—by Australian mining company BHP. The proposed deal, worth nearly $40 billion, stood to become the largest takeover in Canadian history. However, Wall argued that the province would lose significant resource revenues, and that the takeover was against Canada's strategic interests. The federal government blocked the deal.